Please Help Support Baseball For Blind Players

by Kevin Burton    In five-plus years I have never asked you readers for anything on Page 7, except for your attention and maybe to suspend disbelief a time or two.    Today’s post is a little different. So what’s gotten into me today? Why am I asking for your help?    Well, you could …

There Is A Method To My March Madness

by Kevin Burton    I can’t imagine a scenario where I am completely immune to the madness.    While you and your office mates filled out brackets last week, that was only a fleeting thought for me. Didn’t come close to working up the enthusiasm. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be found on the …

Deflated Wichita State Program Limps Offstage

by Kevin Burton    Well, at least it’s over.    The 2024-25 version of Wichita State basketball bowed out yesterday, when the Shockers lost an American Athletic Conference tournament quarterfinal game to Memphis 83-80.    The team went 19-14 this year and will not go to a post-season tournament. They were far from sublime, not …

Adding Indiana Fever To My Sports Landscape

by Kevin Burton    I need to correct an error today, an egregious error.    Last month I wrote a post about my favorite sports teams in the various college and professional sports leagues (“My Shifting Sports Team Allegiances,” March 27).    Somehow I got all the way through that post without writing a single …

Wichita State Great Ron Baker Turns 30

by Kevin Burton    Ron Baker, the shooting guard who helped usher in the greatest era of basketball at Wichita State, turns 30 tomorrow.    Some of us may not be ready to hear that.    Some of us overlooked, downtrodden people clung tightly to those Wichita State teams, underdogs who routinely slayed giants (I’m …

Why Do We Love March Madness So Much?

by Kevin Burton   In the bad old days, being without a girlfriend, or a date, or even a prayer, on Valentine’s Day was a sharp searing pain to the psyche.    Now by comparison, being without a basketball team for the big dance, or even the little dance, is a dull ache. March Madness is …

SI: North Carolina’s NIT Decision Was Lame

by Kevin Burton    North Carolina head basketball coach Hubert Davis, hurting after his team coughed up a 16-point lead and the NCAA tournament final to Kansas last April, nevertheless had gracious words for his players.    “I can’t be more proud of the group that I just coached this year,” Davis said in a …

Hey Baseball, Get Off My Lawn!

by Kevin Burton    The seasons are changing, calendar and sports calendar; the time is changing (spring forward Saturday night, kids), too much is changing.    Any number of poets have rhapsodized about the beginning of spring and all it symbolizes. OK, I’m good with that. But as a sports guy in the man cave, …

Goodtime Shockers Got The Blues

by Kevin Burton    Hope to be wrong on this, but….    It appears to be over for Wichita State.    The Little Program That Could, could compete in a small conference, but still have a senior class graduate having won nine NCAA tournament games – nine happy NCAA press conferences – now can’t even …

A Few Words For March Madness Fans

by Kevin Burton    You hear the word “hoops” what comes to mind?    Are you thinking earrings? Are you thinking bureaucracy, extra obstacles you have to jump through? Or are you thinking basketball?    No right answer to this, we try to appeal to all types of readers here. But for me, it’s basketball. …